


Hypnotize: SOAD in a different view

by AndreD, TheNu-Head (AndreD)



Category: System of a Down (Band)
Genre: Gen, live shows, ok I'll stop spamming stupid things in the tag section, origins of the band, same as other musicians, sometimes Rick Rubin appears out of nowhere
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 22:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29286387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreD/pseuds/AndreD, https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreD/pseuds/TheNu-Head
Summary: Four men. A history in common, a genocide. A passion in common, music. Many changes in their lives, until they become what we know them as. This is System of a Down's story, told with some creativity and quite a bit of research. Or, if we want to make a pun, re-Serj.
Kudos: 4





	1. Who we are

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was originally posted on my Quotev profile. Since I'm starting to use it less every time, I decided to post everything here.

  * **Serj**



Serj was sitting in front of his desk, running his fingers through his hair. He looked at the calendar. _1992 is almost over. Time flies by so fast._ He stood up, leaving pen and paper on the desk, and went to change the music.

"Hmmm... What should I listen to now?" He said to himself, looking at the vinyls. "Oh, well, I'll go with some soundtracks. Ennio Morricone will do."

As the music kept playing, lyrics started to form in his mind. He smiled, then sat again in front of the desk and wrote everything he thought. _Tomorrow we have a concert... Let's hope this is OK for the band._

  * **Daron**



"Hello, Daron!"

"Hi" Daron answered, resting his head on his arm. "Any ideas?"

"Nope." The rest of his bandmates entered the room. "Hey guys, any ideas for songs?" He asked them.

"I have one." One of them handed him a sheet of paper. Daron read it out loud.

"It's great." They all said.

"We're playing it tomorrow, right?"

  * **Shavo**



"Shavarsh!"

"Yes?"

"Come in! It's almost eight! You can't stay out here and skateboard all day!"

"Alright, I'm coming." Shavo reluctantly walked inside the house and kicked his skateboard out of the way.

"I must admit" His grandma said. "That you are a great skater, Shavo."

"Thank you, granny." He turned on the radio. War Pigs came on, which surprised both of them. Shavo sang along with a smile.

"This generation has a weird music taste" His grandma stated, shaking her head with a grin. "Alright, I'll go make dinner, Shavarsh. Wanna help, or I have to wait for Black Sabbath to stop?"

"Coming" Shavo chuckled and turned the radio off.

  * **John**



John stood up and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He had just finished drum practice and was really tired.  
All of a sudden, he had an idea and tried to write some lyrics, singing them to himself.

"I may not be the best songwriter" He said. "But it's something cool."

He instantly came up with a rhythm, but he was too tired to test it.

 _I'll try it tomorrow._ He left the room and went upstairs.


	2. Soil

Daron woke up and looked around his room. _God, it's worse every day..._

He got up and found a little piece of paper on the desk. He took it and read it:  
 _"Daron, your bandmate is in the living room, I told him you were sleeping but he wants to see you. Please deal with him. Your father"_

Daron grinned. He got ready quickly, took his guitar from the stand and entered the living room.

Serj was talking to Daron's parents about him, how he actually was a genius in writing songs and how he was doing great in the studio.

"Could you repeat the name of your band? I keep on forgetting" His mother asked.

"Soil" Serj said. "Daron helps a lot with guitar, I sing, a friend of ours named Dingo plays the drums, another one, Dave, plays bass and another one named Shavo is both the manager and the rhythm guitarist."

"Please Serj, stop complimenting me. I'm not worth it."

Serj turned his head and stood up from the sofa he was sitting on, his long curly black hair bouncing as he tilted his head. "Morning to you, Daron." He said with a smile. "Are you coming to band practice today? Or do I have to wait so you can sleep longer?" He snapped, but jokingly.

Daron rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry, alright?." He checked the clock. "11 a.m.? I slept for THIS long?!"

His parents nodded and Serj started laughing, his hair bouncing as he lowered his head.

"Alright, let's go practice" Serj managed to say after all the laughs. "We'll eat something on our way, fine?"

Daron nodded. He waved at his parents and him and Serj went out.

At the studio, they met the others and started to practice.


	3. Victims of a Down, John appears

"I just can't keep playing" Andy said. "My hand... Is gone."

"Oh come on!" Shavo shouted. "You only hurt you hand, it's not that bad!"

"You're not the one who's feeling this all" Andy replied.

"If you need it, then go!" Daron told him coldly. "We'll find someone else. People won't mind, we only made one demo. What do you think about it, Serj?"

Serj wasn't even listening. He was minding his own business in front of a sheet of paper and a pen.

"SERJ!" They all shouted, and he almost screamed in surprise. He stood up and turned around. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?!" He said, still screaming.

"I'm leaving" Andy said.

"And why?"  
"My hand" He held up his injured hand.

"So you're leaving for a hand injury?" Serj said, confused. "Alright, but please take care. And talk to us whenever you're free-"

"Serj, stop it! You're not his mom!" Daron interrupted him, Shavo was laughing.

Serj rolled his eyes, and all of them kept laughing.

Later on, Andy left.

It had been months since Andy left. Shavo looked at the demo tape. Serj Tankian, Daron Malakian, Shavarsh Odadjian, Ontronik Katchaturian.

_Andy will stay in the demo tape's credits, no matter what._

"Guys" Daron said after some minutes. "I know a guy that could help us... His name is John. He's Armenian like us, and he's a drummer."

After a while of discussing, they all said, together: "Let's give John a try."

Little did they know he would stay for years, if not decades...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy that there's at least one member I share a nickname with.


	4. Our first Ozzfest

"Ok, are we ready?" Shavo asked.

"Of course we are!" Daron replied excited.

"God, Daron, are you stoned or something?" John asked him with a grin.

"I'm fine. We're all fine, right Serj?"  
Serj, again, was just minding his own business, singing quietly to prepare himself. It wasn't the first concert they did, but Serj wanted to be ready.

After all, it was still their first Ozzfest. A really important concert.

"He's probably drunk" Shavo whispered. John tried to bring him back to reality by tapping his shoulder, and he turned around. "Yeah?"

Daron started laughing, Shavo glared at him and John shrugged.

"Ok, it's our turn" Shavo said after a couple minutes.

"What are we starting our set with?" John asked.

"I'd say War" Daron said, running his fingers through his long-ish dyed hair. Serj almost envied him: he decided to cut them not long before.

"And War will be" He answered in return. "C'mon, let's go on stage!"

Half an hour later, they were backstage again. "Guys, Sugar was epic!" Daron was literally jumping around in excitement.

"And all the crowd singing with us throughout the concert... Great!" John smiled.

"Can't wait for the next studio sessions" Serj said. "I really want to publish all the songs..."

"We'll do it really soon" Shavo told him. "Rick Rubin answered me this morning, in a week or two we'll start recording."  
"Really?!" John was having a hard time believing him.

Serj started jumping around in happiness with Daron.

"Guys, you're in your twenties, you're not four."


	5. Self-titled

"So, which tracks are you recording today?" Rick asked with a smile.

"I don't know, what's in the tracklist?" John replied with another question.

"Let me check it out." Serj looked at the whiteboard in the studio, his hair not letting him see really clearly. He was actually glad that it regrew this fast. "Umm... The first one is Suite-Pee."

"Let's record it then" Shavo said, dragging Daron in the recording room.

They ended up recording all the tracks in under three hours.

"Alright guys" Rick started. "Do you want to record something else while you're here? Or I can start mixing?"

"I think there's nothing else" Daron said. 

They all nodded.

Suddendly, the phone rang. Serj went to answer.

  
"Hello, this is System of a Down, I'm Serj... Oh, mr. Osbourne!... Alright, Ozzy. What's going on?... Again?... Next year?... Alright, I'll ask the others." He covered the phone with his hand and asked: "Ozzy Osbourne wants us to participate to the next Ozzfest. What should I say?"

"Tell him that we'll be there" Daron replied, after they all loked at each other.

Serj nodded and went back on the phone. "Yes, we'll be there, Ozzy. Hope to hear from you soon!"

Imagine the excitement that phone call caused.

Two months after the 1998 Ozzfest, System of a Down was flooding everywhere. Sugar and Spiders never left the radios, the entire album was later certified platinum.


	6. We're rolling "Suicide"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, I changed the title. I like it like this. "Working on Toxicity" was a bit too... y'know.

"Guys, I think we should record some softer ones first."

"Can't we just record Bounce first? Or Suicide? C'mon..." Serj asked Shavo, who was trying to convince the others to play the calm ones first.

"No."

"Alright, should we start with the title-track then?" John shouted from his drum set.

"Ok!" They all shouted back.

After the first versions of every track, they started complaining. Again.

"No. They're too soft" Daron stated. "I want them all to be heavier, but leave some stuff like it is. Toxicity is good like this. And Aerials too."

"Fine" Shavo gave up. "Let's go with Prison Song first. And then we'll record the others."

"Next one is ATWA!"

"Fine, fine."

After a month or two, the songs were finished.

"Now let's just leave it to Rick" John said.

"I'll help him" Daron shouted, running away.

"Daron!" They all shouted. "Daron come back!"

Shavo ran to catch him, but couldn't find him.

"Guys, Daron is gone" He said while ha was running back. His beard, shaped in a braid, distracted him for a second, resulting in him falling with his face to the ground.


	7. Steal me!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know chapters are starting to become shorter, at this point I was procrastinating quite a bit instead of brainstorming for ideas.

"I have no ideas."

"Neither do I."

"Same for me."

"Am I the only one who knows what to do?!" John shouted. "I mean, they got our songs! Innervision, Boom, A.D.D. and many more!"

"Yeah, and so?" Daron said, pretty disinterested.

"Guys, we should make another album! It's so easy to understand!" John explained, but seeing the confused looks on the others' faces, he then added: "Are you stupid or what? Let's update the songs."

"Now it's clear" Serj said, not moving his eyes from the book he was reading. "But won't people think it is a remix album or something?"

"Shavo, what do you think? I'm too high to say anything coherent" Daron asked, laying on the couch.

"First, Daron you're not high. Second, I think we should try. I don't care what people will think." He looked around. "Hey Serj, what are you reading?"

"I think it's called Steal This Book" Serj closed the book and turned it around. "Yes, Steal This Book!."

"And here is the title for the album!" Daron jumped up and pointed at Serj. "We'll call it Steal This Album!"

"See that you're not high, Daron?" Shavo replied with a laugh.

In a few seconds, Daron understood and started laughing as well.

"Forget what I said, he actually is" Shavo added whispering.

Just between you and me, I think Shavo was lucky, imagine what could have happened it Daron heard that last sentence...


End file.
